Siemens Acquisition of Camstar Will Help Realize the Digital Enterprise Vision

With Siemens' announcement that it plans to acquire MES solution provider, Camstar, the company is making an emphatic statement that it continues to be very serious about integrating manufacturing operations and production execution into the PLM design/build lifecycle. In the MES solutions market space, Camstar represents a best-of-breed provider of MES solutions to the electronics, semiconductor, and medical device industries.

This acquisition represents an unusually good fit for Siemens PLM and the newly organized Digital Enterprise Realization group. The Camstar solution set complements the Digital Enterprise lifecycle strategy of Siemens customers, specifically the production engineering and production execution domains. Moreover, the Camstar Enterprise Platform supplements the recent integration of Siemens SIMATIC IT manufacturing operations management (MOM) solutions with Siemens PLM.

Siemens PLM's Vision: Realizing Innovation through the Digital Enterprise

The goal of many Siemens customers is to realize the Digital Enterprise. One way Siemens can help them achieve that goal is by providing a smart innovation platform and a systems-driven product development environment. Siemens envisions this innovation process taking place across three distinct domains: Ideation, which represents the traditional PLM area of product and production concept and design; Realization, represented by factory automation and production execution systems; and Utilization, which represents the service and support of products in the field and the feedback loop from these products back to the other two domains.

Siemens believes that digitalization is transforming the manufacturing industry. Its definition of the digital enterprise for manufacturers focuses on three areas. First, is the concept of the Smart Model in which the product model establishes the design objectives needed to produce itself. Second, is the Digital Twin, a complete digital product definition that simulates the real physical product. Lastly, is optimized, distributed production implemented through autonomous production systems with embedded intelligence. In this manner, Siemens believes that this end-to-end lifecycle encompasses PLM, MOM, plant engineering, and the company's totally Integrated Automation (TIA) approach. Additionally, the Digital Enterprise encompasses five major domains of the end-to-end lifecycle: product design, production planning, production engineering, production execution, and product service.

Siemens Digital Enterprise Realization, an entity within the company, is responsible for enabling the optimization of production within the digital enterprise and more specifically, develop the strategy for digitalization of manufacturing operations. The focus is on integrating the product and production lifecycles from the perspective of production execution. The Camstar acquisition will help fill out a significant part of the Digital Enterprise vision by tying together two domains of the end-to-end lifecycle: production engineering and production execution in key vertical industries. Camstar's Enterprise Platform enables enterprise MES capabilities across the manufacturing network, as well as all phases of the product lifecycle.

Conclusion

Clearly, the acquisition of Camstar aligns well with Siemens' vision and strategy for realizing the customers' Digital Enterprise and complements its current SIMATC IT MES offering in the electronic, semiconductor, and medical device industries. It also adds technology and expertise to its solution offerings in these important industry sectors. More importantly, Siemens is providing more tools that enable its customers to realize innovation.

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Keywords: Digital Enterprise, Realization, Ideation, Utilization, MOM, MES, PLM, TIA.